If you've watched or raced an ironman distance race, you know that half of the field walks much of the marathon. For those prepared to walk, and who have goals of just finishing...that's fine. But if you've trained and prepared to run the whole marathon...it can feel like The Zombie Death March.
Finishing an ironman is a great athletic achievement. But running the whole marathon is a whole other challenge; it will put you in the minority of those who cross the finish line, and is a sure sign of a successful race. At Triathlon Lifestyle Coaching, we've honed the type of training needed to do this. It's a complex mix, and involves being prepared physically, mentally, and logistically.
Of course, athletes hoping to podium or those with a lot of ironman experience will have different strategies. But here's a formula that's worked for most of the athletes we coach.
Running Fewer Miles Than You Think
There's a myth that to run the whole ironman marathon, you need to put in mega-mileage running weeks. Not so. If you take a long-term approach (ie: 5-6 months), you can get by with no more than a few 30+ mile weeks. Even if you're only running 10-12 miles a week now, a steady build over six months will give you all the run fitness that you need.
Running Frequently and Consistently
While you may not run mega-miles, you do need to run consistently. In most weeks, you need four runs. Depending on the season, there may be speed work or a brick. But always a long run, and always a transition run (2-3 miles) after your long ride. Commit to these runs, week in and week out.
But if you do miss a run (or a whole week of running), don't try to “make it up” by cramming in extra miles the following week. That's a recipe for injury. Instead, accept that you've had a setback, and adjust your plan accordingly.
Staying Injury Free
Training for an ironman involves a long-term plan. It means slow and steady fitness gains. It's common for self-coached athletes to become impatient and rush the process—or feel that more is better. But ramping up long runs too quickly, trying too much track work, or running too many miles in general are all big risks for causing injury.
And there's no quicker way to lose fitness than to spend a few weeks laid up from injury caused by an overly aggressive training plan. And few people who get hurt during ironman training have the patience to back off long enough to heal properly. An injury 3 months out from race day often means racing with some niggling version of that injury.
We strive to totally avoid injuries. We build training plans where improvements are low risk, incremental and consistent—which will lead to race day fitness greater than if you'd jumped in head first but gotten injured because of it.
Swimming Efficiently
It all starts with the swim—and you need to be efficient and relaxed through it. Energy wasted here will haunt you ten times over during the run. Even though the swim takes up only 10% of the race, it can ruin your race if you exhaust yourself in the water. But don't confuse speed with efficiency. Sure, we'd all love to breeze through the swim in sixty minutes. But you can have an easy, relaxed swim even with a 1:40 hour split.
We've found it's best to focus on perfecting your swim stroke. You want to be comfortable and efficient in the open water, and can cruise through the 2.4 miles with relative ease—even if you're middle or back of pack. That efficiency is much more important than speed for the overall success of your race.
Learning to Love Your Bike
Running the whole marathon is all about being fresh after the bike. In a sense, the bike is just a warmup for the run. There are books to be written about this topic alone—but in short, you need to train long and hard on the bike. Like the swim, it doesn't inherently matter if you're fast or not—you just need to be fit enough so that 112 miles on the bike really isn't that big of a deal. Likewise, even if you run a 3 hour stand-alone marathon—if you don't have great bike fitness, you probably won't be running the entire ironman marathon.
Pacing and Realistic Goals
Success on the marathon is also tied to proper pacing. And that starts with setting realistic goals. I've heard all sorts of wildly optimistic ironman goals that involve blazing bike splits and marathons approaching the racer's last half-marathon pace. And often times people will hit them—but pay dearly late in the race.
Pacing matters even on the swim. Think about the effort it takes to swim an extra 10 seconds/100 faster. Even if you push that hard through 2.4 miles, you'll save a grand total of 7 minutes. And if you've worked really hard to gain those 7 minutes, you're sure to pay them back many times over across the next 10-12 hours.
Likewise, riding too hard is one of the biggest causes of a terrible marathon. Ironically, this seems most problematic for faster cyclists—because there's a desire to exploit their strongest sport. Learning to pace yourself on the bike is a huge factor—I spend more time coaching this than almost anything else. It's often hard to realize just how slow this pace is when compared to even moderately hard training rides. For example, on race day, the first 25 miles should feel ridiculously easy.
Similarly, it's typical for people to start the marathon too fast. The first 3-6 miles may feel pretty easy, and you'll need to hold yourself back. You need a realistic goal pace, and need to stick with it early on. While you shouldn't expect to negative split the marathon, you also shouldn't be slowing more than 2 minutes/mile over the 26.2 miles. Slowing by 3-4 minutes/mile is a sign of having started too fast.
Fueling
Gastrointestinal issues are another reason people walk much of the marathon. A lot of these are caused by fueling mistakes—taking too much/not enough of the wrong food at the wrong time. You need to practice your fueling and hydration from week one of training, so you get it dialed in by race day. Most people start their training by not taking enough calories, and it takes time to adjust to digesting more while riding and running.
Write down a plan for what and how much you're to eat during each portion of the race. By all means, don't just wing it.
But even if you pull this off as planned, ironman is tough on the digestive system, and you still might have problems. Diarrhea and nausea are common, but they don't need to stop you from running. You just need to be prepared to deal with them. A quick tip: learn about Imodium. It may become your best friend on race day.
Mental Preparation
Regardless of how well you've trained, paced, and fueled , running the last half of the marathon is going to be extremely hard. It will hurt a lot, and it just might be the hardest thing you've ever done (unless you're a mom—I understand the marathon is a piece of cake compared to the second stage of labor...). But this is where you get to show your toughness, and separate yourself from the half of the finishers who are walking much of the course.
You'll find many people who had good fitness, good pacing, and good fueling—but just mentally give up and start walking. The mental preparation needed to avoid this is a whole other topic. But, in short, you need challenging yet reasonable workouts to prepare you for these last couple of hours, and strategies for staying in the moment. You need to embrace your discomfort, prevent it from turning into suffering, and be prepared to keep running through it all.
